The Charles E. Pont Papers on Frederic W. Goudy

Series I, Correspondence (1935-1972)

Primarily contains letters between Pont and Goudy’s relatives, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in the fields of printing, publishing, and type design, and to reference librarians in places such as the printer’s birth city, Bloomington, Illinois. Pont’s aim was to seek information on all aspects of Goudy’s life and career, as well as to acquire letters or copies of letters that Goudy had written to others. The letters show that he did receive material which he transcribed and returned to the owners; the transcriptions can be found in the Chronological Files in Series II. One of Pont’s correspondents, George L. Harding, let him borrow two dozen letters that Goudy had written to his friend Eva Dean, which Harding had purchased in 1946 from the book dealer Philip C. Duschnes; the letters were never returned to Harding and are filed in Series I following Goudy’s letters to Pont. Also present are two folders of letters from Goudy to Pont.

Series II,Research Files (1887-1960)

This is the bulk of the collection. It holds Pont’s notes, draft pages of his manuscript, photographs, clipped articles on Goudy’s life and work, type specimens and proofs, and a variety of printed ephemera that features Goudy’s typefaces. It is organized into three subseries: Chronological Files, Graphics, and Other Papers. The Chronological Files were set up by Pont, who had made a folder for almost every year between 1891 and the 1950s, and in which he had filed in dated writings by and about Goudy, clippings, offprints, keepsakes, transcribed letters, and random notes about events in Goudy’s life in any particular year. This arrangement was retained with additions interfiled from random folders (most marked “Goudy” or “to file”), and a parallel set of flat (Oversize) files were created for material that had been folded up to fit in Pont’s letter-size files. There is an oversize folder for most years so readers should consult them as well. The Graphics subseries holds a few of Goudy’s original drawings for typefaces as well as examples of Pont’s prints and drawings, including his wood-engraved portrait and the pencil drawing which was the source. The engraved block for the print is held in the Melbert J. Cary Graphic Arts Collection as part of the Coggeshall–Goudy Memorial Workshop Collection (CSC 008). Other Papers contains a few subject files, undated type specimens and other printed material, folders of Pont’s random notes, draft pages of Pont’s composition, Goudy’s draft introduction to the biography, and a dummy created by Pont which includes a drawing of the Goudy’s home in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, New York.